Company Expansion Includes New Facility Set To Open Next Month.
By Millie Takaki
Feature editor David Moritz—whose credits include Rushmore and Bottle Rocket, both helmed by Wes Anderson (who directs spots via bicoastal The Industry)—has signed with Wildchild Editorial, New York, for exclusive representation in commercials and music videos, effective next month. Moritz will come aboard just as Wildchild is slated to move into a 10,000-square-foot facility in New York. The inking of Moritz and the new digs—which will house four or five Avid suites as well as an online room—constitute part of an overall expansion for the company.
"We are going after those editors at the top of their craft in various arenas to round out a boutique image," said Wildchild’s head of sales and development Leslie Lyons, "and we are very excited about David." Lyons, who recruited Moritz, said she was attracted to the editor mainly through his work with Anderson. "David’s ability to blend irony and comedy in the context of storytelling came through in his projects with Wes—and this sensibility lends itself perfectly to spotwork."
At press time, Moritz was cutting Knockaround Guys, starring John Malkovich and Dennis Hopper, for New Line Cinema. The film’s directors are Brian Koppelman and David Levien.
Meanwhile, Wildchild has also promoted Brendan Sherman to full-fledged editor, and has added executive producer Maria Fugere, formerly of New York-based Consulate. Sherman had been working in tandem with Wildchild editor/president Yvette Pineyro. He recently wrapped an adidas spec spot directed by Mark Celentano of WildLife Management, New York, and is currently in the midst of a Pseudo.com project, in which actor Willem Dafoe performs a T.S. Eliot spoken-word piece.
Once Wildchild’s facility is up and running in January, Pineyro said the goal will be "to offer an eclectic roster of editors that directors and producers can come to for creative collaboration and expertise." Additionally, the company will have access to a design/graphics company, Voodoo, that operates independently but will be on the same premises as Wildchild. Voodoo is being launched by director of design/graphics Steve Marino and designer/artist Jim Forster. The new venture will officially open next month when Wildchild’s facility debuts.
"The advantage to having Wildchild and Voodoo together in the same space is to be able to package projects for clients with high-end work coming from both sides," related Lyons, who will represent Voodoo as a separate company from Wildchild for spots, music videos, and feature film main titles.
Marino and Forster are moving over from 89 Design, New York, where the former had been since ’96 and the latter since ’97. The two artists have worked together since their days at R/Greenberg Associates, New York, in ’89. They will continue to be involved in design and graphics, effects, CG and compositing, with Marino serving as visual effects supervisor. Marino and Forster recently wrapped a music clip for the Beastie Boys’ just-released Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science album. Additionally, Marino and Forster have assorted commercials to their credit for such clients as Panasonic, Bell Atlantic and Fruit of the Loom.
Tim Burton Discusses His Dread Of AI As An Exhibition of His Work Opens In London
The imagination of Tim Burton has produced ghosts and ghouls, Martians, monsters and misfits โ all on display at an exhibition that is opening in London just in time for Halloween.
But you know what really scares him? Artificial intelligence.
Burton said Wednesday that seeing a website that had used AI to blend his drawings with Disney characters "really disturbed me."
"It wasn't an intellectual thought โ it was just an internal, visceral feeling," Burton told reporters during a preview of "The World of Tim Burton" exhibition at London's Design Museum. "I looked at those things and I thought, 'Some of these are pretty good.' โฆ (But) it gave me a weird sort of scary feeling inside."
Burton said he thinks AI is unstoppable, because "once you can do it, people will do it." But he scoffed when asked if he'd use the technology in this work.
"To take over the world?" he laughed.
The exhibition reveals Burton to be an analogue artist, who started off as a child in the 1960s experimenting with paints and colored pencils in his suburban Californian home.
"I wasn't, early on, a very verbal person," Burton said. "Drawing was a way of expressing myself."
Decades later, after films including "Edward Scissorhands," "Batman," "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Beetlejuice," his ideas still begin with drawing. The exhibition includes 600 items from movie studio collections and Burton's personal archive, and traces those ideas as they advance from sketches through collaboration with set, production and costume designers on the way to the big screen.
London is the exhibition's final stop on a decade-long tour of 14 cities in 11 countries. It has been reconfigured and expanded with 90 new objects for its run in... Read More